Up to 6 Slalom athletes will be offered EAHI based on the following prioritized system:

SLALOM:

Only Athletes who compete in Olympic Events are eligible for the 2012/2013 EAHI Slots.

OLYMPIC / EAHI QUALIFYING EVENTS

C1 – M
C2 – M
K1 – M
K1 – W

After Olympic Athletes are awarded slots, Athletes will be ranked based on their performance in Olympic Classes at the five 2011 ICF World Cups (World Cup #1 - June 8-10, Cardiff, GBR; World Cup #2 – June 15-17 Pau, FRA; World Cup #3 - June 22-24 La Seu, ESP- ; World Cup #4 - August 24-26 Prague, CZE and the World Cup Final - Aug. 31 – Sept. 2, Bratislava, SVK) through the below method:

Athletes who are nominated to the 2012 Olympic Games will be awarded the EAHI slot first.

Next, Athletes who have made Finals at the World Cups will be allocated the remaining EAHI slot (s).

If there are more athletes, than the available EAHI slots, who have made Finals then athletes who have a podium finish will be awarded the slots first

If there are still additional slots available, athletes will be ranked by the number of times in the Finals

If there is a tie, the slot will be awarded to the athlete whose combined rank, by adding their Final places together, has the lowest total.

If there is still a tie, the athlete with the best result from the 2012 Olympic Trials will be awarded the slot.

If there are not 6 athletes who have made Finals, athletes will be ranked taking their average of their top two overall semi-final placing’s out of the five World Cup events and the remainder of the slots will be awarded to those athletes. (an athlete must have at least two World Cups Semi’s to have an average)

If an athlete declines to enroll in the EAHI program within 20 days of being nominated, the unused EAHI slot(s) will go to the next qualified athlete.

The period of coverage will begin upon athlete enrollment (approximately at the time of nomination for 2012 Olympic Games after the conclusion of World Cup #1 or after World Cup Final) until new 2013 EAHI Allocations are made.

Any EAHI slots that are available after all eligible athletes have accepted or declined, per the criteria above, will remain unallocated to Slalom athletes and transfer to Sprint athletes provided they meet the Sprint EAHI criteria.

For both Slalom and Sprint, should there be any available EAHI slots left after the eligible athletes have either accepted or declined, those remaining slots will remain unused.

OPERATION GOLD

Athletes that qualify for Operation Gold payments at the 2012 qualifying event are eligible for the following payment amounts:

1st Place: $25,000
2nd Place: $15,000
3rd Place: $10,000

The 2012 Operation Gold qualifying event for NGB is the Summer Olympic Games in London, England. In the Olympic year, multiple Operation Gold Awards will be paid to qualifying athletes. In non-Olympic years, Operation Gold Awards are limited to one award per athlete in a program year. In non-Olympic years, athletes who qualify for more than one award automatically receive the higher award.